Sports

Keeper of castle

Kasey Keller, like the home in which he and his family dwell, becomes more appreciated with age

Cary, N.C. - United States goalkeeper Kasey Keller doesn't have to wait until he walks onto the field for the U.S. soccer team's World Cup opener to feel like a king. All he has to do is wake up every morning and look out the window. To his moat.

Or drive home from his job as goalkeeper in the north Rhein town of Monchengladbach, Germany, and see his two medieval turrets sticking out from the trees. Greeting him at home are his wife, Kristin, 8-year-old twins Chloe and Cameron, and Rufus, a white Maltese. Oh, yes. Gargoyles. Lots of gargoyles.

They stand sentry over the 1,000- year-old castle Keller is renting while playing for Borussia Mon- chengladbach in Germany's famed Bundesliga.

One time a few months ago, he swore a medieval nobleman had returned.

"I thought it was a ghost, but it ended up just being a short," Keller said, "which was a shame."

Keller, 36, was one of the first U.S. players to make it in Europe. In fact, he has spent his entire 16-year career overseas, first with Millwall in England, then Rayo Vallecano in Spain, Tottenham Hotspur in England and finally Borussia Monchengladbach.

Not many Americans could begin their pro career at Millwall, home of what were the most vicious hooligans in the United Kingdom. Yet while the fans terrorized and brutalized rivals all over Eng- land, they adored Keller, who says: "I used to say that a lot of times if there was a fight (among English fans) it was teenagers.

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At Millwall, it was grown men. That's Millwall."

Keller arrived in Germany in January 2005 and couldn't find one house that sparked the family's interest. Then Kristin surfed the Internet and found the castle. And it was available.

Fortunately, the castle doesn't have the original plumbing. It was built in 970 and renovated in the 1200s. It suffered major fire damage in the mid-1800s and sat empty for 150 years. The local historical society provided grants to anyone willing to modernize it, and it sprang to life.

"It's like anything," Keller said last week at the U.S. team's training camp near Raleigh. "If you've ever had an old car, you know something always breaks and something always has to be fixed, and that's pretty much what living in a 1,000-year-old castle is like. But it's fun."

Keller will play this World Cup tournament in his adopted home country. It seems like he has waited 1,000 years for another chance. This is Keller's fourth World Cup, but the U.S. team's June 12 opener against the Czech Republic in Gelsenkirchen will be only his third start and his first in eight years.

He appeared to be America's goalie of the future in 1998 when he shut out Brazil 1-0 in the CONCACAF Gold Cup, making five saves on Romario, the 1994 World Cup MVP who later called Keller's game "the greatest performance I've ever seen by a goalkeeper."

That summer Keller started the first two World Cup games in France, where the U.S. bombed out with one goal in three games.

After D.C. United coach Bruce Arena took over, Keller figured he would ride America's expected wave up a level on the world stage. He started nearly all the World Cup qualifying games in which the U.S. easily qualified with an 8-4-4 record.

However, he had a slight injury before the Cup in Asia and Arena started Brad Friedel in the opener against Portugal. The U.S. won, and Keller never saw another minute as the U.S. reached the quarterfinals for the first time.

Keller nearly quit.

"But I enjoyed my career with the national team and I didn't want to end my career with a bad feeling," he said. "So I wanted to see if we could get past it, and we have, and obviously it was the right decision."

Keller wound up with a U.S.- record 50 wins and 44 shutouts, including a streak of 639 minutes spanning seven World Cup qualifiers last year.

"He's always been a great goalkeeper," said Tony Meola, a three-time U.S. World Cup goalie. "He stuck around the last four years because he probably had something to prove to himself. This should be a good World Cup. He's sure prepared and ready, and I don't see any surprises at that position."

Keller doesn't expect any, either. In South Korea in 2002, the U.S. wondered about everything from the quality of the grass to the fans.

"Well, I don't wonder anything," he said. "I know everything. I've played in every stadium. I've been to every city. My phone is from there. My car's there. My family's there. My dog's there. It's almost like I'm going home to the World Cup."

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